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2016 Diamond Kings Baseball to Return April 6

Artistic renditions of some of baseball’s greats from long ago join current stars on the 2016 Diamond Kings Baseball issue from Panini America.

The brand’s second standalone release capitalizes on the brand that began as a popular subset inside 1980s Donruss packs. The current products take that concept much further.

2016 Panini Diamond Kings Basics

With a release date of April 6, Diamond Kings will offer 12 eight-card packs per box with two autograph or memorabilia cards in each. Current online pricing is $75-$80 per box. The cards are printed on canvas stock to highlight the artsy feel.

Autographs in preview images were on stickers. There are cut autographs of former stars randomly inserted.

Panini has included memorabilia associated with some of the game’s most famous Hall of Famers and legends including Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, Joe Jackson, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and others.

Without an MLB license, Panini has to get creative with its images and Diamond Kings offers a way to utilize an extensive collection of artist’s renderings of this year’s rookie class. The rookie card checklist will have numerous parallels including Framed, Unframed and Artist’s Proofs.

Memorabilia and Autograph Cards

There are five new memorabilia and autograph inserts in 2016 Diamond Kings including Elements of Royalty, Elements of Royalty Signatures, Limited Lithos Materials, Limited Lithos Signature Materials and Diamond Deco.

Elements of Royalty pairs retired greats with two memorabilia swatches with Brown, Blue, Green and Black Frames sequentially numbered to 49 or less. Unframed Silver, Gold and Black versions will be sequentially numbered to 99 or less.

Diamond Duos features players from different eras with four memorabilia swatches. Prime and Super Prime versions are sequentially numbered to 25 or less.

Memorable Feats features legendary players like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Roberto Clemente and highlights major career achievements.

Rookie Signatures pairs top 2016 Rookies with an autograph and two memorabilia swatches. Framed parallels numbered to 99 or less will be part of the mix.

Limited Lithos, which pairs rookies like Kyle Schwarber, Corey Seager and Miguel Sano with two memorabilia swatches will have Silver, Gold and Black parallels sequentially numbered to 99 or less. Also look for Framed Brown, Blue, Green and Black versions sequentially numbered to 49 or less.

Rookies Signatures features top talent from the 2016 rookie class paired with two memorabilia swatches. Look for Brown, Blue, Green and Black Frames sequentially numbered to 99 or less. Also look for unframed Silver, Bronze, Gold and Black versions sequentially numbered to 299 or less.

The DK Signatures cards will have Brown, Blue, Green and Black Frames sequentially numbered to 99 or less as well as unframed Silver, Bronze, Gold and Black versions sequentially numbered to 299 or less.

DK Minis Materials are mini versions of base cards with relics. There will be a prime version with a Black Frame numbered to 10 or less and an unframed version with a different checklist.

Studio Portraits Materials features portrait shots of veteran stars, paired with two memorabilia swatches with Silver, Gold and Black parallesl numbered to 99 or less and Brown, Blue, Green and Black Framed versions to 15 or less.

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About Rich Mueller

Rich is the editor and founder of Sports Collectors Daily. A broadcaster and writer for more than 30 years and a collector for even longer than that, he's usually typing something somewhere. Type him back at [email protected]